The Data on Teen Dating

Study Finds Trouble for Kids Who Date at an Earlier Age

By

Ann Lukits

Sept. 30, 2013 7:17 p.m. ET

Boys and girls who start dating at a young age are disrupting the typical pattern of teenage romantic development and may have more school and behavioral problems than their peers, suggests a Canadian study to be published in the December issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

ENLARGE

Entering into intimate relationships too early can leave teens ill-prepared to handle typical problems couples face and without the support of peers at the same stage of romantic development, researchers said.
Getty Images

Interest in the opposite sex usually begins at puberty and gradually evolves into casual interactions, followed by group-based dating by the midteens, previous research has shown. Exclusive partnerships are formed mostly later in adolescence.

Entering into intimate relationships too early can leave teens ill-prepared to handle typical problems couples face and without the support of peers at the same stage of romantic development, researchers said. These experiences can increase the risk of unsafe sexual activity, alcohol use and delinquent behaviors, the study says. Late-starting daters, while also out of step with peers, appeared to have no apparent social or emotional difficulties.

The study, by researchers at York University in Toronto, used data collected from 1996 to 2003 on 698 students from 12 local schools.

The students, whose average age at the start of the study was 11.8 years, reported their romantic activities on yearly questionnaires. Separate questionnaires assessed personality traits, such as shyness, depression, and aggressive or delinquent behaviors.

The early-starting group began dating at the age of 11.6 years, on average, compared with 12.9 years for on-time teens and 14.9 years for late bloomers.

A majority of students, 55%, were classed as on-time teens whose romantic activity gradually matured during adolescence. Early starters, who began a consistent pattern of dating and intimate relationships between 10 and 12, comprised 20% of the participants. So-called late bloomers, those who delayed dating until their late teens, accounted for 25%.

Early starters reported twice as many acts of abnormal or delinquent behavior as on-time teens and late bloomers. Behaviors included lying and cheating, picking fights, truancy, disobedience and running away.

Late-blooming students, once their interest in dating began, followed an accelerated path through the casual and group-dating stages before moving to exclusive relationships, with no apparent adverse effect.

Girls in the late-bloomer group were about 15.5 years old when they started dating, about a year older than boys, the researchers said. Students with high academic goals were more likely to be late bloomers.

Caveat: Teens may have over- or underreported their romantic involvement, researchers said. The findings may only apply to urban or heterosexual teens in Western countries, they said.

• Viral identifier: Scientists have developed a blood test that appears able to diagnose a viral respiratory illness with greater than 90% accuracy, potentially providing a valuable new tool in the battle against antibiotic-resistant germs.

ENLARGE

A genetic test was made using people identified with H1N1, above, and H3N2 viruses.
James Cavallini

The new test, reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, works by analyzing a patient's genetic response to an infectious organism in order to distinguish viral infections from others. By contrast, traditional diagnostic testing is designed to identify specific organisms that may be causing a patient's symptoms.

The researchers said the new test, which isn't yet ready for clinical use, could eventually identify new influenza viruses earlier. It also may help reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, they said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September said that more than two million people in the U.S. develop infections each year that are resistant to antibiotics, partly because of excessive use of antibiotic medications in humans and animals.

The new test was developed at Duke University using 48 genes found to be highly activated or expressed in blood analyzed from volunteers experimentally inoculated with the H3N2 or H1N1 influenza viruses as part of an earlier study. The genes represent a molecular profile, or viral infection signature, of a typical immune response to viral infection, researchers said. The new test uses a technology called custom reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to detect a similar pattern of genes in blood samples from patients with suspected viral infections.

In the latest study, the test was used to diagnose 102 patients with fever and respiratory symptoms seen in emergency departments in North Carolina, Michigan and Australia in 2009. Standard diagnostics indicated that 28 of the 102 had viral infections, 39 had bacterial infections and 35 were healthy and uninfected, researchers said.

The genetic test identified 25 of the 28 viral infections correctly and misclassified three, the study found. Four patients with bacterial infections and one uninfected patient were also misclassified as having viral infections.

Caveat: The test only identifies viral infections and doesn't distinguish between different types of viruses. Other genes may be identified that could more effectively classify viral infections, researchers said.

• Dog-bite danger: After a natural disaster, dogs may be more likely to attack people unprovoked, according to a study in Preventive Medicine.

The Japanese study found that the number of dog bites was almost 30 times as great in one small city in the weeks following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster as in the previous year. Animal behavior often changes before a major seismic event but only a few studies have looked at the post-disaster period, the researchers said. Dog bites were reported to increase after Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The study used medical records to track 27 patients ages 23 to 86 treated for dog bites at Japan's Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital in the 3½ months after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent nuclear power plant disaster. Most area residents were evacuated following the explosion but pets were usually left behind, researchers said.

Dog bites peaked about three weeks after the quake and remained high until the 15th week, the data showed. By comparison, only two people were treated for dog bites in the 10 weeks before the earthquake. About 70% of bites were to the upper body. Of the victims, 44% were bitten by dogs that had owners, 33% by neglected dogs and 23% by strays or unknown dogs.

Many bites occurred after the sixth week of evacuation, indicating that returning residents could have become victims of bites by starved and highly stressed dogs.

A number of dogs attacked people without displaying any signs of aggression, the study found. This behavior may be due to hormonal changes or mental stress caused by intermittent aftershocks, researchers said. About a third of the dogs had been vaccinated for rabies and the status of the remainder was unknown.

Caveat: The study only included dog bites treated at one hospital. It isn't known if dog bites were related to radiation exposure.

• Exercise paradox: Symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease can be reduced with physical activity, but only if the exercise isn't perceived as stressful, says a study in Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Diseases such as ulcerative colitis affect an estimated 1.4 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Psychological stress is known to aggravate symptoms of bowel disease but studies investigating the effects of exercise on colon inflammation have been inconclusive.

In experiments at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, lab mice were divided into two exercise groups for several weeks. One group was forced to run on a treadmill at a moderate pace; the other was assigned to a less-stressful regimen of voluntary treadmill running. Both groups were paired with control groups that were largely sedentary.

Beginning 24 hours after the last exercise session, both groups of active mice were given several doses of 2% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) dissolved in water, which triggers colon inflammation similar to colitis.

Indications of colon inflammation, including the presence of certain proteins and gene activity associated with inflammation, were significantly increased in the mice that were forced to maintain their pace of exercise compared with the control mice. Mice able to exercise at their own chosen pace had fewer colitis symptoms and significantly reduced levels of inflammatory gene activity in colon tissue in response to DSS treatment, the study found.

Caveat: Colitis induced by the chemical DSS isn't an exact replica of human colitis, the researchers said. Effects of forced and voluntary exercise have not been compared in people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Gum Disease Linked to Sleep Apnea

People who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea and often breathe through their mouths during sleep are at greater risk of developing chronic gum disease than those without the disorder, suggests a study in the Journal of Periodontal Research. Periodontitis, a gum disease, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep disorder characterized by frequent breathing interruptions, are linked to systemic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, but it isn't known if OSA is a trigger for periodontitis, researchers said.

ENLARGE

Mouth breathing during sleep may lead to periodontitis.
Alamy

The South Korean study used data on 687 people ages 47 to 77 who were examined between 2009 and 2010 as part of a larger health investigation. Dental examinations assessed the prevalence of bleeding and receding gums, dental plaque and other indicators of periodontitis. OSA was diagnosed with a computerized device worn at home or in a sleep lab. Snoring, mouth breathing and other health and lifestyle information were reported on questionnaires.

Obstructive sleep apnea was diagnosed in 47% of the subjects and periodontitis in 17.5%. Of those with periodontitis, 60% had OSA and 25% were chronic snorers.

Periodontitis was almost four times more prevalent in men with sleep apnea than in women with the sleep disorder, the study found. The association between periodontitis and OSA was only significant in subjects aged 55 and older, the adjusted results showed.

Caveat: Mouth breathing was self-reported and all subjects may not have understood the term, researchers said. The findings don't prove conclusively that mouth breathing and obstructive sleep apnea lead to periodontitis, they said.

This is like commenting on the many young unwed mothers living in poverty and the problems they face and then making no mention of demographic or ethnic differences. As an example, I would predict a dramatic difference between dating habits and school problems between groups of children in Aberdeen, SD and Chicago or Detroit.

Typical social science silliness. The study's principals probably have their cause and effect backwards or at least sideways. Early dating probably doesn't lead to other problems but, rather, is one characteristic behavior of the kid's overall personality. Kids who date early do the other stuff, too. That's the package.

Typical social science silliness. The study's principals probably have their cause and effect backwards or at least sideways. Early dating probably doesn't lead to other problems but, rather, is one characteristic behavior of the kid's overall personality. Kids who date early do the other stuff, too. That's the package.

this study is mostly nonsense, they have turned the facts upside down to support their "do not date conclusion" The young daters are sexually mature earlier than their peers. Since they are sexually mature they date. Since they are not similiar to their less mature classmates the activities of those classmates bore them, their lives bore them and since school is basically getting in their way they react in negative ways to school. If one steps back and looks at reality, woman in a lot of societies who menestrated were considered sutiable for marriage and children, the men usually waited until older as they needed to support their wives. In the western culture norm, the woman are ready for marriage even if they claim otherwise ant that is disrupting the more immature but sexuallly ready males who then react in negitive ways to school. Maybe the answers are in separate eduacation systems for men and women, a system used already in the Catholic system and other religous based schooling systems. Systems that realize even if they do not admit it that sex exists and men and woman react to sex differently.

Is this dating data really a shock to anyone? If a kid is that interested in the opposite sex at that young of an age it is unhealthy.

For a couple years, I did focus groups with high schoolers (freshmen and sophomores) for a brand I worked on. Inevitably, in the girl groups, most of the girls came in wearing sweatshirts, hair in scrunchies, and mainly concerned about their studies, friends, or extracurricular activities. Then you would get the 1 girl who came in looking like a 30 year-old divorcee, make-up, dressed to the 9s, aware of culture references and things you just shouldn't be at that age.

"Early starters reported twice as many acts of abnormal or delinquent behavior as on-time teens and late bloomers. Behaviors included lying and cheating, picking fights, truancy, disobedience and running away."

Perhaps the cause is the lying, cheating, picking fights, truancy, etc of younger children and the effect is early dating/sex and unwanted children.

Perhaps your observation parallels my comment. I was going to observe that it is not obvious if the article (much less the research) purports to identify a causal relationship in one direction, a causal relationship in another direction, or merely a correlation. Basically, are kids who have some problems more likely to start getting involved with others at a very young age? Or does getting involved at a young induce problems.

My guess is that your observations would be consistent with the former: kids with issues are more likely to manifest those issues in certain ways, and that can include getting hot and heavy with other young kids. But are those other young kids (boys?) similarly situated? ... Hmm ...

I thought that was strange myself. Granted, I was a very late bloomer: group dating in college and individual dating in grad school. Now I am married for almost 14 years, have 3 kids with one more on the way. Sometimes I wake up and wonder what did I get myself into?!?

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